My couch to 5k journey – Week 3 Opening my eyes.

This week has been busy to say the least. I have been desperately playing catchup on emails, washing, messages to friends, the list goes on…Sometimes it has felt like the last thing I have needed to do is go out for a run and push myself to make my feet move even faster. How fast can this cog turn before it breaks and burns out?

So this week I took it slow.

January should be a time of rest. Animals hibernate in their sleepy cosy burrows, trees are halted in their growth to be still and brace the storm, the darkness is still wrapping us morning and night in blankets and duvets willing us to stay in, stay safe, stay warm, recoup. There’s a lot of pressure to start ‘doing’ things in January, but if we align ourselves to nature, what we actually should be doing is…well nothing. Using this time to give ourselves that ‘out of office’ ‘take it easy’ card and say no guilt free.

Today I went out for my run with the intention that I wasn’t going to beat my run last week. I wasn’t going to be faster or better. I was going to enjoy going out just to be out. Walk it if I needed to, maybe go crazy and speed walk or do a very light skip in places because this is MY journey. The Couch to 5k coach reminded me of this golden nugget; I don’t actually have to be a good runner by the end of it with a good time across the finish line. It doesn’t have to be a linear graph each week where we see improvement after improvement. Some weeks I might take something just as valuable as exercise away; a clear head, perspective, fresh air, gratitude.

This week might have been a dip in progress from an obvious exercise perspective but a change in perspective has allowed me to find far more varied appreciation of the journey. There’s nothing wrong with slowing down it really does open your eyes.